Osseous tissue or bone tissue generally makes up the skeletal system of vertebrates. In humans, osseous tissue is made of cancellous bone and cortical bone. Cortical bone is generally solid and strong and provides a shell for cancellous bone which is also known as trabecular or spongy bone. In some humans cancellous bone may become diseased and lose mass and density, thus increasing risk of fractures or breaks in the bone. This decrease in bone mass and density is commonly referred to as osteoporosis and frequently affects the elderly. Medical procedures have been developed to treat osteoporosis and provide additional support to bones.
Some procedures require drilling through the cortical bone to treat the cancellous bone inside. Once a hole has been drilled in the cortical bone a catheter may be used to treat the cancellous bone. In some procedures a catheter with an expansion member, such as a balloon, near the end is introduced into the cancellous bone and the expansion member is expanded in order to compact the cancellous bone. After compacting the cancellous bone, a void in the cancellous bone is sometimes created and this void may be filled with bone cement to provide added strength for the bone.
Removal of a catheter with a balloon near its end can be complicated. Typically the balloon is deflated before removal from the hole in the cortical bone but problems may occur if, for example, the balloon is bulky in its deflated state or the balloon does not fully deflate before its attempted removal. A typical balloon inflates circumferentially as well as longitudinally from a deflated state closely wrapped to the underlying catheter body. In the case of longitudinal expansion the balloon may inflate beyond the distal tip of the catheter device. This can be problematic when extraction is attempted if the deflated balloon remains beyond the distal tip of the catheter device as the structure may be too bulky to pass through the cortical hole or to retract inside a cannula. As such, the development of devices with improved physical characteristics during medical procedures and ease of extraction following the medical procedures is advantageous.